This book explores how cricket in South Africa was shaped by society and society by cricket. It demonstrates the centrality of cricket in the evolving relationship between culture, sport and politics starting with South Africa as the beating heart of the imperial project and ending with the country as an international pariah. The contributors explore the tensions between fragmentation and unity, on and off the pitch, in the context of the racist ideology of empire, its ‘arrested development’ and the reliance of South Africa on a racially based exploitative labour system. This edited collection uncovers the hidden history of cricket, society, and empire in defining a multiplicity of South African identities, and recognises the achievements of forgotten players and their impact.

Bruce Murray is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Previous publications include The People’s Budget: Lloyd George and Liberal Politics, 1909-10 (1980), Wits: The Early Years (1982) and Wits: The ‘Open’ Years (1997). He is co-author of Caught Behind: Race and Politics in Springbok Cricket (2004), and co-editor of Empire and Cricket: The South African Experience 1884-1914 (2009). Richard Parry has a Ph.D. from Queen’s University, Canada, and written variously on resistance to colonialism, South African cricket and social history, and international taaxation. He was a contributor to Empire and Cricket: The South African Experience 1884-1914 (2009).Jonty Winch received his Ph.D. from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, and has written six books including England’s Youngest Captain: The Life and Times of Monty Bowden (2003). He also contributed to Empire and Cricket: The South African Experience 1884-1914and co-authored Cricket and Conquest: The History of South African Cricket Retold (2016).